Focus: Disaster averted after Fall River gasoline tanker truck fire

The residual effects of a Jan. 27 rollover accident of a tanker truck carrying 11,000 gallons of gasoline were visible Friday, as the Exit 5 ramp off Route 24 North was closed to traffic. Environmental cleanup crews continued the environmental remediation of a wooded area between the President Avenue ramp and Meridian Street.

The residual effects of a Jan. 27 rollover accident of a tanker truck carrying 11,000 gallons of gasoline were visible Friday, as the Exit 5 ramp off Route 24 North was closed to traffic. Environmental cleanup crews continued the environmental remediation of a wooded area between the President Avenue ramp and Meridian Street.

The Jan. 27 accident snarled rush-hour traffic and the thick, black smoke visible for miles alarmed area residents. But, all things considered, the damage from a gasoline-fueled inferno in the wooded area off the ramp was not nearly as extensive as it could have been.

Remarkably, the driver was the only person injured, and environmental and public health impacts were minimal. For that, Fall River can thank the instant response and smart decisions of the Fall River Fire Department and neighboring departments that assisted.

But also deserving of the city's gratitude — in a roundabout way — is a former President Avenue pig farm that spurred contamination concerns about the drinking water supply nearly a century ago.

Fall River Director of Public Utilities Terry Sullivan offered the homespun pig farm story to explain how a century-old drainage system helped protect the public drinking water supply from gasoline contamination in the Jan. 27 accident.

Sullivan said that an 1873 drinking water contamination at the North Watuppa Pond prompted city fathers to construct an intercept drain and pipe for Terry Brook, which then fed into the North Watuppa and once ran near where the Jan. 27 accident site was.

The theory was that the contamination came from the former Davis Pig Farm, which sat where Truesdale Clinic is today. Animal waste was running off from the farm into the nearby Terry Brook, which then carried the waste to the pond, potentially contaminating the drinking water.

So, in 1915, the draininge system was built.

And on Jan. 27, the system proved to be worth its weight in gold.

The system diverts the brook's natural flow nearly two miles south into South Watuppa Pond, emptying in a drainage pipe off Martine Street.

"Terry Brook is picked up into a 24-inch diameter clay pipe and delivered southbound to the confluence of Highland Brook and Crest Brook under Route 24 and Meridian Street," Sullivan said. "All three streams flow into a deep concrete culvert."

The old pipe did what it was intended to do.

"It was a well designed diversion system and protected the water supply," said Joe Ferson of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, which responded to the scene and continues to monitor the cleanup. Ferson said that any potential contamination at the accident site appeared to have been well contained.

Although there was an "initial detection of gasoline compounds in Terry Brook in the immediate area, levels did drop off significantly on same site 1,100 feet downstream, and 7,800 feet downstream no compounds were detected," he said.

Page 2 of 4 - Firefighters placed two containment booms into the brook to stop gasoline from seeping into the water. As an extra precaution, to protect the water supply and the environment, a sewer suction truck was sent out to "suck out 9,000 gallons of brook water to be extra cautious," Sullivan said. Testing from multiple locations has indicated no harm to the public drinking water supply, Sullivan said.

Letting it burn protected firefighters, environment

The first firefighter on scene lived in the adjacent Meridian Street neighborhood. Fall River Fire Department Capt. Neil Furtado was walking his dog around 7 a.m. that day when the potential disaster struck very close to home.

"I heard an eruption sound," he said. "I knew it was bad." He rushed over to the scene, arriving just as Rescue 1 pulled up.

Fortunately, the location of the wreck was far enough away from the residential neighborhood that Fire Department brass could let the fire burn. "You couldn't have placed that fire in a better spot" for allowing it to burn, Furtado said.

Fire officials decided that taking "a defensive action and letting the material burn would be in the best interest of the firefighters and the environment," he said. "Had it been on the ramp, the attack methods would have been totally different. We couldn't have let it burn."

The decision to let the gasoline-fueled inferno burn out — a decision that did come under fire by some residents — was indeed the best decision to minimize environmental impacts, said two experts who discussed fuel spill responses at an oil spill science seminar for journalists last week.

"Burning is the best option because it gets rid of the gasoline quickly so the air pollution impact is only for a brief time and much less than that associated with oil spills," said Agnes B. Kane, chair of Brown University's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "It is essential to prevent the gasoline from entering the (brook) and the drinking water supply, so a prompt response is needed."

At the fire scene, firefighters used Class B foam to cover trees and grass. The foam "knocks out fire in a multiple attack method," Furtado explained. "It separates the fuel from the fire and puts a blanket on it, releasing the water in the foam and acting as a cooling solution." Further helping to cool the fire was a blanket of snow.

"Burning gasoline is safe as long as the fire does not spread — that is why they must have used fire retardants (Class B foam) on trees and bushes," said Vijay John, a professor in engineering at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Kane said that although Class B foam does contain perfluorochemicals — contained in common appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators, which do deplete the ozone layer — the benefit of their use outweighs the environmental risk.

Page 3 of 4 - "It is essential to use this during a gasoline spill to prevent igniting the vapors and causing an explosion," she said.

Air quality near the accident site, monitored by DEP, remained at healthy levels despite the thick, black smoke plumes visible for miles and enveloping the nearby neighborhoods. Winter conditions had also helped matters. Windows were closed, making the decision to allow a two-hour burn an easier decision, Furtado said.

Meanwhile, the hydrocarbons in gasoline — carbon dioxide and water — fueling the black smoke cloud evaporated into the atmosphere. "There are no unexpected impacts," said DEP's Ferson. "A lot (of gasoline) was consumed in the fire and volatilized."

In other words, the gasoline had turned into relatively harmless vapor, rather than a toxic spill.

"With the wind we had, within a half hour, the smoke was going up and away," Furtado said. That further minimized any health impacts in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Both experts said that given the stakes of the situation, letting the gasoline burn was the right thing to do. "In my opinion, burning gasoline from a tanker spill has minimal environmental impact," John said.

Kane concurred that firefighters made the right decisions on the scene. "I think this response was appropriate to protect human health and the local aquatic environment," she said.

Cleanup, monitoring continue

While it is possible that soil and groundwater could have been contaminated by gasoline, multiple initial tests have indicated that the public drinking water supply at North Watuppa Pond was not affected. Although the potentially harmful hydrocarbons from the gasoline could have spilled out to South Watuppa Pond, initial testing does not indicate a cause for alarm.

Although it appears that any serious environmental impacts were averted, the site will undergo remediation. The trucking company on the hook for the cleanup, West Bridgewater-based J.P. Noonan, has hired the firm Clean Harbors to monitor the site and it has begun the cleanup. That firm is required to submit environmental testing results and a response plan to be approved by DEP, as prescribed under the Waste Site Cleanup Program.

After that, they will have up to one year to fully clean up the site. But the remediation is expected to be completed sooner. "They're doing what they need to do, they're getting on it quickly rather than waiting," Ferson said. "You want to get out and clean."

To that end, burnt trees and bushes that had been sprayed by gas vapor and foam have been removed, as will contaminated soil. That work on the site is visible. Regular testing and monitoring at the accident site and downstream will continue.

Aaron Frechette is the Editorial Page Editor for The Herald News. Last week, he attended a seminar and academic conference in Mobile, Ala., focusing on oil spill science and the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The seminar was sponsored by the University of Rhode Island's Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. Email afrechette@heraldnews.com or follow him on Twitter @AaronFrechette.